INDIA BUSINESS WORLD - AUGUST 2006
THE MONTH THAT WAS...

I-T DEPT TO MATCH EXCISE, TAX FILING

THE MESSAGE from Income Tax department is loud and clear — there is no room for evasion. The department is now gearing up to tighten its noose further. It is creating a special module which will allow it to match details of returns filed for income tax with those in excise duty.

The system, which is expected to become operational by next fiscal, will be able to compare data from the two departments through Permanent Account Numbers. Also, the department will keep a tab on data and business intelligence reports generated by various agencies to monitor the performance of various industrial sectors.

The department sources said the objective was to ascertain that sectors which were showing good performance should also do so on taxation front. The module will help the department in keeping a close tab on performance of companies and returns filed by senior officials, especially those falling in the Rs 8-10 lakh and above bracket.

For example, if a company is showing downslide in its performance, it could well be evident through its excise returns which the department would be able to access though the PAN and further match it with the data on income tax side. Any upswing in its performance would also not go unnoticed.

Since the information would be centralised, the data could well be used for income tax purpose, both on corporate and individual fronts. PAN would act as the key to information and would help in creation of profiles which was the aim with which it was conceived. As a precursor to the functioning of the module, the department has already initiated an exercise to create a central pool of data. Currently, there are seven to eight data processing centres based on the zone-wise division made for tax collection purposes.